Vintage treasure hunting

In the past couple of weeks I have had success in my vintage treasure hunting. I am always on the look out, I rummage, I act on hunches, I dig through piles, I grab anything that looks interesting, I examine,I check regularly and I ask. But often, it is just simply a case of being in the right place at the right time. Sometimes you have great success, sometimes you walk away empty handed. I always enjoy the hunt though!

These are from a local charity shop.

Perfect for Kate-Em! They need a clean up and the mounting needs sorting out but I couldn't leave these cross stitch pictures behind. They are Kate Greenaway figures and I already have the K one as my Godmother stitched it for me when I was born!

Charity shops are a fantastic source of buttons, once you have dug through all the little plastic bags of men's shirt buttons and random oddments. I don't know what I will use these on yet so into the button tin they go.

This piece of fabric was hard to photograph as it has a slight sheen to it. It looks a bit like a brocade but I don't think it is. I liked the delicate pattern and there was a decent length of it so I snapped it up.

I collect Stitchcraft magazines so when the lovely Lucy from 1940's style for you was selling some recently I was able to fill a few holes in my collection.

Very glamorous! Wish I looked like that answering the phone. Love the jumper.

Camels! Need I say more!?

Fabulous hat and mittens set.

Great hair, twinset and parrot!

Beautiful. I think I might like a nice fluffy bolero.

The vast majority of this haul I found at the fabulous Hebden Bridge Women's Institute Rag Market. This twice yearly event is run by some members of the WI and is a fantastic place for crafters to go shopping. The hall is packed with stalls piled with craft related goodness; fabric, wool, buttons, thread, patterns, notions, paper, books etc. Some of the stall holders are selling their stash, some are shop owners, some are selling the contents of their granny's attic. Everything is priced reasonably and it is a great place for a rummage. The recent market was so very good that I spent my budget by 9.45 (I was helping set up, it didn't open until 11am), and I had to pay a visit to the bank! It was worth it.

I found some fabric:

Gorgeous colours, heavy weight and a really good length for £2!

Modern John Lewis but looks very Mid Century.

Some small pieces of tweed for a project that is half formed in my mind!

I found some knitting patterns:

Apart from the lovely gloves I love the styling of this one.

I will probably be selling this one on as I am fairly sure I have it. Great hats!

I have to try this and see if it can indeed be knitted in 2 hours.

Intrigued by the peculiar cone hat which can be styled slouched or straight up!

I love the Growing up in Sirdar range for their colours and styling as much as the patterns.

I had to get this as the socks match the yoke of the jumper.

 Just a lovely set.

I found embroidered goodies:

Tablecloth with baskets of flowers in each of the corners.

Tablecloth with garland of flowers in each corner.

An oval cloth for a dressing table.

A really gorgeous tray cloth.

I found books:

I found buttons:

For 1950's Tyrolean knits.

Magnificent!

I found some random bits and pieces:

Boxed embroidered hankies.

Close up.

A marvellous crocheted doily.

Close up. Look how fine that work is.

A lovely cheery tin.

I found Stitchcrafts:

Great jumper and hat set.

I was very happy indeed with all my finds! Lots and lots of projects and ideas to be getting on with!

Crafty Tuesday - egg cosies

Crafty Tuesdays came about some months ago when some friends and I decided that we would like to make some Christmas cards. We had so much fun, and so enjoyed adding some extra crafting into our week that we decided to make it a monthly thing. We tend to choose a theme, often seasonal, scout about for inspiration and patterns, use Pinterest to share ideas and then turn up at one of our houses with a bag full of fabric, yarn, needles, pins, thread, card, glue dots, scissors and ribbon and get crafty. We generally have a pizza and a chat, get done to some crafting, have tea and cake and do some more. This is how Crafty Tuesday's were born.

I realised after last week's Crafty Tuesday that although I have shared the results of these sessions in my Seven Snaps series and in the Simple Christmas cards post I have never shown one in it's entirety. So welcome to our Easter themed Crafty Tuesday where we made egg cosies. We are aware that they are, in essence, totally unnecessary, but they are pretty, cute, make nice gifts, quick and fun. So we don't care about necessity!

The original plan was to make felt egg cosies and to decorate them. This is M with her hot pink felt going straight into cutting it out with no template! Mantra - you can always cut it smaller but can't make it bigger.

J was inspired by some egg shaped felt decorations and decided to make her own version but turn it into a brooch. She cut out her shapes and appliqued them onto her egg shape. It was going to be stuffed and a brooch back attached.

I was all up for making felt cosies until I found this pattern in a knitting magazine. Then I decided that I needed these. This caused consternation to K, who fell in love with the woolly stripes whilst having lots of felt cosy plans.

I raided my stash beforehand and then chose my yarn from the pile I had bought along with me.

K decided to go with the knitted cosy and raided M's yarn stash without seeing my colour choices. Bit of a 'whoa' moment as they are freakishly similar.

M pinned her cosy into shape and tried it over the egg cup containing a creme egg that she had thoughtfully prepared earlier.

Stripes! My cosy in progress.

The past few Crafty Tuesdays have been interrupted ( in a good way) for The Great British Sewing Bee as we are all avid watchers. This week it also involved a bit of a house swap. Crafty Tuesday was at M's house. Her television is normal sized to small. M lives a few doors down from K. Her television is normal to large. So at 8pm we gathered up our craft projects (not necessarily what we had been making) and nipped out to K's house. We did laugh as we scuttled down the street without our shoes properly on, trailing yarn.

We love the Great British Sewing Bee. The final is on Tuesday. Very excited!

K had made a yummy pineapple upside down cake. Old school pudding's are just the best. We continued with our alternate craft projects. We had to do this so that GBSB could get our full attention!

J hand stitching her Regency style apron, made without a pattern! Clever! She was getting it ready for a re-enactment event. M was knitting a lovely sock. K was knitting cute heart bunting. I was knitting my cosy.

A lovely cuppa! Crafting is so very often fuelled by tea. (and cake, but we won't go into that)!

GBSB finished we packed up and went back to M's. This is my finished cosy before being stitched together and before the darning in of those pesky yarn ends.

M's finished felt cosy. It is decorated with a strip of polka dot fabric, cut out with pinking shears and tied in a bow. So jolly!

My finished cosy! I was very pleased with its woolly stripeyness.

The top of the cosy is stitched together to create this pretty effect.

I can't wait for the the next instalment of Crafty Tuesday!